Before You Begin

ESX, vCenter Server, and vSphere Client Version Compatibility

The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details of the compatibility of current and earlier versions of VMware vSphere components, including ESX, vCenter Server, the vSphere Client, and other VMware products.

Hardware Compatibility

Learn about hardware compatibility

The Hardware Compatibility Lists are available in the Web-based Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. The Web-based Compatibility Guide is a single point of access for all VMware compatibility guides and provides the option to search the guides, and save the search results in PDF format. For example, with this guide, you can verify that your server, I/O, storage, and guest operating systems, are compatible.

Installation and Upgrade

After successful installation, several configuration steps (in particular, some licensing, networking, and security configuration) are essential. Refer to the following guides in the vSphere documentation for more information on these configuration tasks.

Future releases of VMware vSphere might not support VMFS version 2 (VMFS2). You should consider upgrading or migrating to VMFS version 3 or higher. See the vSphere Upgrade Guide.

Future releases of VMware vCenter Server might not support installation on 32-bit Windows operating systems. VMware recommends installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit Windows operating system. If you have VirtualCenter 2.x installed, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide for instructions about installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit operating system and preserving your VirtualCenter database.

Management Information Base (MIB) files related to ESX are not bundled with vCenter Server. Only MIB files specifically related to vCenter Server are shipped with vCenter Server 4.0.X. All MIB files can be downloaded from the VMware Web site at http://www.vmware.com/download.

Upgrading VMware Tools

VMware ESX 4.0 Update 4 requires a VMware Tools upgrade. VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating system. See the VMware Tools Resolved Issues for a list of VMware Tools issues resolved in this release of ESX.

The VMware Tools RPM installer, which is available in the VMware Tools ISO image for Linux guest operating systems, has been deprecated and will be removed in a future ESX release. Use the tar.gz installer to install VMware Tools on virtual machines with Linux guest operating systems.

vSphere Host Update Utility — You can upgrade from ESX 3.5 Update 5a by using the vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0 Update 4. For more information see the vSphere Upgrade Guide.

esxupgrade.sh script – You can upgrade from an ESX 3.5 Update 5a host that does not have network access. See Performing an offline upgrade from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.x (KB 1009440). If the host has network access, you can use the vSphere Host Update Utility or VMware vCenter Update Manager to perform the upgrade.

vihostupdate command of VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface (vSphere CLI)—You can upgrade from ESX 4.0.x by using the vihostupdate command. For more details, refer to vSphere Upgrade Guide and Patch Management Guide.

Several upgrade tools that were supported in ESX 3.x releases are no longer supported in the current release. These tools include graphical upgrade from CD, text-mode upgrade from CD, tarball upgrade using the service console, scripted upgrade from CD or PXE server using esxupdate, and scripted upgrade from CD or PXE server using kickstart commands.

Updated RPMs and Security Fixes

Upgrading vSphere Client

After you upgrade vCenter Server or the ESX/ESXi host to vSphere 4.0 Update 4, you are prompted to upgrade the vSphere Client to vSphere Client 4.0 Update 4. The vSphere Client upgrade is mandatory. You must use only the upgraded vSphere Client to access vSphere 4.0 Update 4.Note: You must use vSphere Client 4.0 Update 4 to access vCenter Servers that are part of a linked mode group with at least one vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4 instance.

Patches Contained in this Release

This release contains all bulletins for the ESX Server software that were released prior to the release date of this product. See the VMware Download Patches page.

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is not supported with Fault Tolerance
A VCB backup performed on an FT-enabled virtual machine powers off both the primary and the secondary virtual machines and might render the virtual machines unusable.

Workaround: None

CIM and API

Some power supply VRM sensors are not displayed in vCenter Hardware status tab for IBM x3850 and x3950 M2 servers In vCenter Server Hardware status tab, sensors are not displayed for all the states of PS VRM sensor in the Hardware status tab for IBM x3850 and x3950 M2 servers. The CIM instances are not created corresponding to each state of the Power Supply VRM sensor on IBM x3850 and x3950 M2 servers. This is due to a defect in the IBM BMC firmware 4.5. Hence, the sensors are not displayed in vCenter Hardware status tab.

Incorrect version number listed in Small Footprint CIM Broker
The Small Footprint CIM Broker version listed from SLP service is incorrect. This release contains SFCB 1.3.3 version, but in the SLP query information, the version is listed as 1.3.0. This incorrect version number does not impact the usage of SLP service. Currently, there is no workaround for this issue.

CIM Indication subscription is lost after an ESX update
CIM Indication subscription is lost when upgrading between ESX updates or when applying patches. The information regarding where to send the indication is overwritten by the upgrade and, therefore, lost.

Workarounds: Either of the following workarounds can be effective. Employ the method that best suits your deployment.

Re subscribe the CIM indications
You might not be able to employ this workaround. Sometimes re subscribing the CIM indications is not an option.

Copy the appropriate files from the backup repository to the new repository as described in the sub steps that follow.
This workaround recovers the CIM XML indication subscriptions.

Move the following files from the back up repository to the new repository:
cim_indicationfilter
cim_indicationfilter.idx
cim_indicationhandlercimxml
cim_indicationhandlercimxml.idx
cim_indicationsubscription
cim_indicationsubscription.idx
cim_listenerdestinationcimxml
cim_listenerdestinationcimxml.idx.
For example, move the preceding files from the backup repository, such as /var/lib/sfcb/registration/repository.previous/root/interop, to the new repository, such as /var/lib/sfcb/registration/repository/root/interop

Restart the sfcbd-watchdog process.

Guest Operating System

Removing the disk from a virtual machine with a RHEL3 guest operating system without informing the guest causes the virtual machine to fail
For a 32-bit virtual machine with a RHEL3 guest operating system and a BusLogic driver, hot removing the disk without informing the guest OS about the disk removal causes the virtual machine operation to fail.

Workaround: Remove the disk from the guest explicitly. To remove the disk, first get the disk details from /proc/scsi/scsi for the disk that you want to remove:

Get the HOST CHAN ID and LUN numbers for the device from /proc/scsi/scsi

Run the following command in the RHEL console:

echo "scsi remove-single-device HOST CHAN DEV LUN" > /proc/scsi/scsi

Solaris 10 U4 virtual machine becomes non responsive during VMware Tools upgrade
Upgrading or restarting VMware Tools in a Solaris 10 U4 virtual machine with an advanced vmxnet adapter might cause the guest operating system to become non responsive and the installation to be unable to proceed.

Solaris 10 U5 and later versions are not affected by this issue.

Workaround: Before installing or upgrading VMware Tools, temporarily reconfigure the advanced vmxnet adapter by removing its auto configuration files in /etc/ or removing the virtual hardware.

Devices attached to hot-added BusLogic adapter are not visible to Linux guest
Devices attached to hot-added BusLogic adapter are not visible to a Linux guest if the guest previously had another BusLogic adapter. In addition, hot removal of the BusLogic adapter might fail. This issue occurs because the BusLogic driver available in Linux distributions does not support hot plug APIs. This problem does not affect performing hot add of disks to the adapter, only performing hot add of the adapter itself.

Workaround: Use a different adapter, such as a parallel or SAS LSI Logic adapter, for hot add capabilities. If a BusLogic adapter is required, attempt a hot remove of the adapter after unloading the BusLogic driver in the guest. You can also attempt to get control of the hot-added adapter by loading another instance of the BusLogic driver. You can load another instance of the BusLogic adapter by running the command modprobe -o BusLogic1 BusLogic (where you replace BusLogic1 with BusLogic2, BusLogic3 for BusLogic2, and so on, for every hot add operation).

Virtual machines with Windows NT guest operating systems require a response to a warning message generated when the virtual machine attempts to automatically upgrade VMware Tools
If you set the option to automatically check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power-on operation for WindowsNT guests, the following warning message appears:

Set up failed to install the vmxnet driver Automatically, This driver will have to be installed manually

Workaround: The upgrade stops until the warning is acknowledged. To complete the upgrade, log into the WindowsNT guest and acknowledge the warning message.

Creating a virtual machine of Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop can result in the display of a black screen
When you run the installation for the Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop guest on a virtual machine with paravirtualization enabled on an AMD host, the screen of the virtual machine might remain blank. The correct behavior is for the installer to provide instructions for you to remove the CD from the tray and press return.

Workaround: Press the return key. The installation proceeds to reboot the virtual machine. Furthermore, this issue does not occur if you start the installation on a virtual machine with two or more virtual processors.

Internationalization

Parallel/serial port output file name does not accept non-ASCII characters and displays an error message
When configuring a virtual machine, filenames that include non-ASCII characters might be rejected with an error message. The validation for filenames is not localization-safe and might result in rejection of a valid name. This problem affects output files for serial and parallel ports, and it might affect ISO and FLP names or disk (VMDK) filenames.

Workaround: Restrict all datastore contents (directories and filenames) to ASCII.

Licensing

A host with a single server license that fails to be added to vCenter Server is not given the option to correct licensing during a subsequent add host operation
When an ESX or ESXi host configured with a single server license is added to a licensed vCenter server, vCenter Server displays an error message explaining that the host cannot be added.

Workaround: Remove the disconnected host, and add it again with a non-single server license.

Virtual machines cannot power on if certain licenses are installed during a scripted or interactive installation
If you do not have the correct license serial numbers for your hardware, when you install ESX/ESXi, you might encounter a licensing error. This problem is seen because the vendor and resource check validation of license keys is not performed during the installation. After a license is validated with lib/licensecheck, a subsequent test is needed to check that the system installed is within the limits imposed by the license. However, the installer does not perform this second check.

Workaround: Switch to evaluation mode, and then get the appropriate license from the portal.

Purchased add-on licenses are not displayed in the License list on the vSphere Client Licensing page
When you view your purchased licenses on the vSphere Client Licensing page, a separate product line item for add-on editions is not displayed. For example, if you purchased a vSphere 4.0 Standard with vMotion license, or a vSphere 4.0 Standard with vMotion and Data Recovery license, only the vSphere 4.0 Standard license appears.

Workaround: To view the product features and add-on features for a license key, follow these steps:

On the vSphere Home page, click Licensing.

In the upper-right corner, click Manage vSphere Licenses to launch the License wizard.

Click Next to go to the Assign Licenses page.

Move your cursor over the host license key to see the available product and add-on features.

Miscellaneous

User-created files in the ESX /tmp directory are deleted with each host reboot
If you or the users you support store temporary files, such as application-generated log files, in the ESX /tmp directory, you will lose these files each time the host reboots.

Workaround: Do not use the ESX /tmp directory to store user-generated files and directories.

Diagnostic data from vCenter might be contained in file that cannot be decompressed
While extracting a .tgz file that contains diagnostic data from vCenter, a dialog lists files that cannot be extracted, as well as an error message:

Symbolic link points to missing files.

Workaround: None

The Linux rm -rf command might fail in service console
If you run rm -rf on a directory with more than 380 files, the command fails with the following error:

Directory not empty.

This problem is the result of a limitation in the Red Hat 2.6 kernel.

Workaround: Perform one of these tasks:

Delete the directories by using the vSphere Client datastore browser.

Run rm -rf multiple times, until all the entries are deleted. Each invocation of rm -rf deletes at most 380 entries.

ESX hosts with a TLS LDAP configuration do not allow LDAP users to login
ESX administrators can use the service console to follow LDAP with TLS authentication by running the following command:

After authentication is turned on, you can no longer log in to the ESX host with an LDAP user name. Also, you cannot specify the location of the /etc/openldap/cacerts/client.pem certificate file from the command line.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Open the /etc/ldap.conf file in an editor, add the following, and save the file:

URI ldaps://linux-ldaptls/

Open the /etc/openldap/ldap.conf file in an editor, add the following, and save the file:

ESX/ESXi host's core dump partition setting is not persistent under certain conditions
If you change the core dump partition from /root to a second location and experience an ESX/ESXi host failure within an hour after this change is made but before the host is rebooted, the core dump partition reverts to its original setting of /root.

Workaround: After changing the core dump partition, immediately run esxcfg-boot.

Warning message related to Execute Disable/No Execute CPU feature received on local console
The warning message The Execute Disable/No Execute CPU feature is not enabled for this machine appears on the local console when ESX 4.0 is installed on either an HP system with the No-Execute Memory Protection option disabled in the machine's system BIOS or on a Dell system with the Execute Disable option disabled in the machine's system BIOS.

Workaround: Enable the No-Execute Memory Protection or Execute Disable option in the HP or Dell machine's system BIOS respectively.

Stopping or restarting the vCenter Server service through the Windows Services Control MMC plug-in might lead to an error message
Under certain circumstances, the vCenter Server service might take longer than usual to start. Stopping and restarting the vCenter Server service through the Windows Services Control MMC plug-in might lead to the following error message:

Service failed to respond in a timely manner.

This message indicates that the time required to shut down or start up vCenter Server was more than the configured system-wide default timeout for starting or stopping the service.

Workaround: Refresh the Services Control screen after a few minutes, which should show that the service has been correctly stopped and restarted.

Networking

Removing an ESX/ESXi host configured with a vDS from a vCenter Server system results in inconsistent networking state on the host
If you remove an ESX/ESXi host configured with a vDS from a vCenter Server system, the host cannot reconnect to the vDS. When you add the host back to the vCenter Server system, a warning similar to the following appears:

The distributed Virtual Switch corresponding to the proxy switches d5 6e 22 50 dd f2 94 7b-a6 1f b2 c2 e6 aa 0f bf on the host does not exist in vCenter or does not contain the host.

The virtual machines continue to function on their respective ports, but new virtual machines are not allowed to power on. You cannot modify the vDS settings for this host by using a vSphere Client connected to the vCenter Server system.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Use a vSphere Client to connect directly to the ESX/ESXi host. This workaround requires a direct connection.

Migrate the virtual machines off of the invalid vDS ports one by one by editing the settings of each virtual machine. This will result in prolonged network interruption to the virtual machines.

In a vSphere Client connected to the vCenter Server system, refresh the network settings of the host. The errors are cleared.

Add the host back to the vDS, either manually or by using a host profile.

Migrate the virtual machines back to their respective ports or port groups on the vDS. To do so, right-click the vDS and choose Migrate Virtual Machine Networking. This process also results in network interruption to the virtual machines.

VLAN tagging does not work in SLES10 guest operating systems when Oplin NIC is used in pass through mode (FPT)
This issue occurs when an Oplin 10GB adapter is assigned to a virtual machine running the SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 (SLES10) 32-bit or 64-bit guest operating system as an FPT (fixed pass through) device and the guest operating system is configured to perform VLAN tagging. In such a case, TCP traffic deteriorates and a call to netperf terminates prematurely with an error message. ICMP traffic still goes through and you can ping.

Workaround: Run tcpdump while the TCP traffic is active. Running tcpdump puts the NIC in promiscuous mode, which ensures that the traffic flows properly but consumes a high number of CPU cycles on the guest operating system.

For VMDirectPath Gen I, sharing a dual-function QLogic 2532 adapter between a virtual machine and either another virtual machine or the VMkernel might result in data corruption
When you configure a dual-function QLogic 2532 adapter for VMDirectPath IO, and assign the first PCI function to a virtual machine and the second to either the VMkernel or another virtual machine, data corruption might occur. This happens because both ports use the same credentials to log in to the fabric and have the same storage visibility. VMware does not support this configuration for VMDirectPath IO.

Workaround: If you cannot avoid sharing the dual-function adapter between a virtual machine and the VMkernel, assign the first PCI function to the virtual machine and the second to the VMkernel. The PCI functions cannot be split between two virtual machines.

ESX host disconnects when you remove the secondary service console if both vSwitches are in the same subnet
The host disconnects with an error message when you perform the following steps:

Add a secondary service console.

Change the gateway device of the service console.

Change the gateway device back to primary service console.

Remove the secondary service console.

Workaround: None

Foundry Edgeiron 8X10G switches might experience link status issues with Neterion NIC
If an active port on a Foundry Edgeiron 8X10G switch is repeatedly enabled and disabled over a long period of time, the toggling might force the port into a permanent state of link down.

Workaround: Reboot the switch or use a different switch port.

NetXen chipset does not have hardware support for VLANs
The NetXen NIC does not display Hardware Capability Support for VMNET_CAP_HW_TX_VLAN and VMNET_CAP_HW_RX_VLAN. This occurs because NetXen chipset does not have hardware support for VLANs. NetXen VLAN support is available in software.

The Custom creation of a virtual machine allows a maximum of four NICs to be addedDuring the creation of a virtual machine using the Custom option, vSphere Client provides the Network configuration screen. On that screen, you are queried about the number of NICs that you would like to connect. The drop down menu allows up to four NICs only. However, 10 NICs are supported on ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1.

Workaround: Add more NICs with the task that follows.

Using the vSphere Client, navigate to Home>Inventory>VMs and Templates.

Cannot assign addresses to the ESX service console port after reboot
If a service console port has neither IPv4/IPv6 static addresses configured nor any automatic methods of configuration (DHCP, DHCP6, or AUTOCONF) enabled, the port remains in an invalid state after reboot and you cannot assign addresses to this interface.

Workaround: Configure a static IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) or set up the service console port to use an automatic address generation method (such as DHCP, DHCP6, or AUTOCONF) before rebooting. You can also recreate the service console port after reboot.

The VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO MIB displays as Ethernet0 when running snmpwalk
When snmpwalk is run for VM-INFO MIB on an ESX/ESXi host, the VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO MIB is displayed as Ethernet0 instead of Network Adapter1 while the MOB URL in the VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO description displays as Network Adapter1.

Workaround: None

Applications that use VMCI Sockets might fail after virtual machine migration
If you have applications that use Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) Sockets, the applications might fail after virtual machine migration if the VMCI context identifiers used by the application are already in use on the destination host. In this case, VMCI stream or Datagram sockets that were created on the originating host stop functioning properly. It also becomes impossible to create new stream sockets.

Workaround: For Windows guest operating systems, reload the guest VMCI driver by rebooting the guest operating system or enabling the device through the device manager. For Linux guests, shut down applications that use VMCI Sockets, remove and reload the vsock kernel module and restart the applications.

Applying port groups with multiple statically assigned VMKNICs or VSWIFs results in repeated prompts for an IP address
Applying a vDS port group with multiple statically assigned VMKNICs or VSWIFs causes a situation in which the user is repeatedly prompted to enter an IP address. DHCP assigned interfaces are not affected.

Workaround: Use only one statically assigned VMKNIC or VSWIF per port group. If multiple statically assigned VMKNICs are desired on the same vDS port group, then assign each VMKNIC or VSWIF to a unique set of services (for example, vMotion, Fault Tolerance, and other services).

The console for the guest operating system fails and you cannot access the guest through the console if you set MTU to less than 1500 for a vNetwork Distributed Switch or a vSwitch that has the service console port group or the management network port group
If you set the MTU for the vNetwork Distributed Switch or the vSwitch that includes the service console port group for ESX or the Management Network port group for ESXi Embedded to less than 1500, the console for the guest operating system fails and you cannot access the guest through the console. The service console port group for ESX and the management network port group for ESXi Embedded must be connected to a vSwitch or vNetwork Distributed Switch with an MTU set to 1500 or higher.

Workaround: Avoid setting the MTU value less than 1500 for the vNetwork Distributed Switch or the vSwitch that includes the service console port group for ESX or the management Network port group for ESXi Embedded.

The Retrieval of DNS and host name information from the DHCP server might be delayed or prevented

When ESX 3.5 hosts are upgraded to ESX 4.0 some of the network device load the e1000e driver instead of e1000 When ESX 3.5 Update 4 or ESX 3.5 Update 5 hosts are upgraded to ESX 4.0 or later, the following network devices have the e1000e driver loaded instead of e1000:

Changing the network settings of an ESX/ESXi host prevents some hardware health monitoring software from auto-discovering itAfter the network settings of an ESX/ESXi host are changed, the third-party management tool that relies on the CIM interface (typically hardware health monitoring tools) are unable to discover automatically the host through the Service Location Protocol (SLP) service.
Workaround: Manually enter the hostname or IP address of the host in the third-party management tool. Alternatively, restart slpd and sfcbd-watchdog by using the applicable method:
On ESXi:

Restart management agents on the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). This restarts other agents on the host in addition to the ones impacted by this defect and might be more disruptive.
On ESX: In the ESX service console, run the following commands:/etc/init.d/slpd restart/etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog restart

Virtual Machines Lose Network Connectivity When Moved to ESX Host With Default Number of Ports
By default, the ESX service console is installed with a virtual switch with only 24 ports. When virtual machines are migrated to a host such that the number of ports required exceeds that default, some virtual machines might lose network connectivity. This issue can occur when virtual machines are moved manually, or during disaster recovery scenarios and migration with vMotion.

Workaround: After installation, modify vSwitch0 to have a larger number of ports by editing switch properties. ESX 4.0 and later support up to 56 ports on a virtual switch.

Server Configuration

Host profiles do not capture or duplicate physical NIC duplex information
When you create a new host profile, the physical NIC duplex information is not captured. This is the intended behavior. Therefore, when the reference host's profile is used to configure other hosts, the operation negotiates the duplex configuration on a per physical NIC basis. This provides you with the capability to generically handle hosts with a variety of physical NIC capabilities.

Workaround: To set the physical NIC duplex value uniformly across NICs and hosts that are to be configured using the reference host profile, modify the host profile after it is created and reapply the parameters.

To edit the profile, follow the steps below.

On the vSphere Client Home page, click Host Profiles.

Select the host profile in the inventory list, then click the Summary tab and click Edit Profile.

Select Network configuration > Physical NIC configuration > Edit.

Select Fixed physical NIC configuration in the drop-down menu and enter the speed and duplex information.

On ESX, no error results if net-snmp and hostd SNMP agent are configured to run on same port
If you assign the VMware SNMP daemon (hostd) to the same UDP port as the SNMP daemon (snmpd), no error results, but later access of SNMP functionality shows the following symptoms:

If net-snmp opens UDP/161 first, and attempt to run snmpwalk for VMware enterprise MIB objects under enterprise.6876,
GET requests return a noSuchErro and GETNEXT does not return the value.

If hostd opens UDP/161 first, then third-party management objects and net-snmp is not available.

If neither of the agents can open UDP/161, a timeout results.

Workaround: Perform the following tasks in sequence.

Stop the service console SNMP demon (snmpd) by using this command: service snmpd stop

Restart the VMware SNMP demon (hostd) by using this command: service mgmt-vmware restart

The health status of the ESX/ESXi host server components does not appear on the Hardware Status tab
If you change the HTTPS port number in the SFCB configuration file (sfcb.cfg) to a port other than the default and restart the SFCB (CIM) server, the health status of the ESX/ESXi host server components does not appear on the Hardware Status tab. This behavior is also seen if you log directly in to an ESX/ESXi host and click the Configuration tab to view the health status. Status information for the server components does not appear. This problem occurs because vCenter Server and the SFCB server are communicating on different ports.

Workaround: Make sure that the SFCB server communicates only through the default port.

SNMP PowerOn traps generated during vmware_hostd restart
When you restart vmware_hostd, only the Warm Start trap message should be generated by default. However, for all virtual machines running on your host, the PowerOn trap messages are also generated.

Workaround: You can ignore the PowerOn trap messages.

ESX/ESXi might fail to discover second port on certain IBM servers with dual-port FC HBAs
When you use IBM x3650 servers with dual-port FC HBAs, ESX/ESXi might fail to discover the second port. This problem can possibly happen on other IBM servers with the same version of BIOS.

Workaround: Depending on the type of adapter your server has, do one of the following:

For QLogic HBAs, upgrade the IBM BIOS to the latest BIOS version (version 1.2).

For Emulex HBAs the following solutions exist:

If you use ESX booting from SAN, disable the local disk in IBM server's BIOS.

If you use ESX booting from the local disk or ESXi, disable BootBIOS for both ports on the Emulex HBA.

Storage

Copying large files from the ESX service console to a CIFS-mounted Windows disk might cause file corruption
Copying large files from the ESX service console to a Windows disk mounted using CIFS might cause file corruption.

Workaround: When mounting Windows disks in the service console using CIFS, use the forcedirection option.

During ESX installation, the entire physical disk selected for a datastore is automatically formatted with VMFS
You cannot adjust the size of the VMFS datastore even if you choose advanced partitioning during installation. By default, the installer deploys VMFS on the entire physical disk you select for the datastore.

Workaround: Use scripted installation to assign the required size to your VMFS datastore.

Entering additional static discovery targets for hardware iSCSI might fail
When you configure your hardware iSCSI adapter, an attempt to enter additional static discovery targets might fail. This occurs when a new target has the same iSCSI name as the existing one, even though their IP addresses are different.

Workaround: When configuring hardware iSCSI, use static discovery targets with different iSCSI names.

The path status for the CLARiiON iSCSI storage system changes from dead to active and from active to dead when the system is accessed through the ESX/ESXi software iSCSI initiator
When you use the software iSCSI initiator to access a CLARiiON iSCSI storage system, the path status frequently changes from dead to active and from active to dead. This occurs because CLARiiON does not support the advanced Delayed Ack parameter enabled on your ESX/ESXi host by default.

Workaround: Disable the Delayed Ack parameter on your ESX/ESXi host by performing the following steps:

Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a host from the inventory panel.

Click Configuration tab, and click Storage Adapters.

Select the software iSCSI initiator to configure and click Properties.

On the General tab, click Advanced.

Deselect Delayed Ack.

When you use the PSP_RR path selection policy with Failover Clustering, shared disks experience problems and the cluster may not operate
Failover Clustering conducts SCSI-3 reservations on shared disks. SCSI-3 registration sent down one path allows the cluster to do SCSI-3 reservations only on that path. When PSP_RR later switches to another path, Failover Clustering may be unable to do a reservation or use other SCSI-3 commands that depend on the reservation.

Workaround: Do not switch devices used for shared disks to PSP_RR. Instead, use the PSP_MRU or PSP_FIXED policies depending on the normal default for the array.

Adding a QLogic iSCSI adapter to an ESX/ESXi system fails if an existing target with the same name but a different IP address exists
Adding a static target for QLogic hardware iSCSI adapter fails if there is existing target with same iSCSI name,
even if the IP address is different.

You can add a QLogic iSCSI adapter to an ESX/ESXi system only with a unique iSCSI name for a target, not the combination of IP and iSCSI name. In addition, the driver and firmware do not support multiple sessions to the same storage end point.

Workaround: None. Do not use the same iSCSI name when you add targets.

An error message appears after you enter the fdisk service console command with the absolute path of the disk
If you run the fdisk service console command and provide the absolute path for the disk (for example, fdisk -l /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600a0b80002a071c0000834248ca0b4f), the following error message appears:

last_lba(): I don't know how to handle files with mode 8180

Workaround: You can ignore this error message or run the following command:

fdisk -l /dev/sdh

Booting from an iSCSI LUN might be too slow or fail
If any iSCSI configuration data is present before you start configuring an iSCSI boot device through the QLogic BIOS, you can create duplicate iSCSI sessions for the same target. When this occurs, I/O operations might be very slow and might fail.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

In the BIOS, select the Clear Persistent Targets option to remove any existing iSCSI configuration data.

Add iSCSI boot configuration data.

The ESX service console does not recognize runtime changes made to the LUN size
If any changes are made to the size of a LUN available to your ESX host, the VMkernel detects the new size such that VMFS and virtual machines can use this new size. However, the service console still displays the old size until you reboot the host. This occurs because the service console obtains device capacity only on initial device probe.

Workaround: Reboot the ESX host. If you do not want to reboot, perform the following steps:

Make sure the host does not use the LUN.

Mask the LUN from the host.

From the vSphere Client, rescan the storage adapter that the host uses to access the LUN.

Unmask the LUN to make it accessible to the host.

Rescan the storage adapter.

The service console now displays the correct size of the LUN.

Changing the Maximum Outstanding R2T iSCSI parameter on your ESX/ESXi host to a value greater than one, might result in the EMC CX3 Series storage system not working properly
If you change the default value of the Maximum Outstanding R2T iSCSI parameter on your ESX/ESXi host to a value greater than one, the EMC CX3 Series storage system might not work properly.

Workaround: Do not change the default value of one for the Maximum Outstanding R2T parameter.

ESX might occasionally fail to boot from an iSCSI Clariion storage system
If you boot from iSCSI, your ESX host might not start when the Clariion storage system is used. This occurs because the QLogic adapter is attempting to boot from the standby SP on the Clariion storage and is not properly discovering the active SP.

Workaround: Make sure the primary and alternate boot LUNs in the QLogic BIOS are set to different SPs on the Clariion storage. Change the order of the boot LUNs if this problem persists.

Cannot perform port binding in conjunction with IPv6 ports
Port binding is a mechanism of identifying certain VMkernel ports for use by the iSCSI storage stack. Port binding is necessary to enable storage multipathing policies, such as the VMware round-robin load-balancing, MRU, or fixed-path, to apply to iSCSI NIC ports and paths.
Port binding does not work in combination with IPv6. When users configure port binding, they expect to see additional paths for each bound VMkernel NIC. However, when they configure the array under a IPv6 global scope address the additional paths are not established. Users only see paths established on the IPv6 routable VMkernel NIC. For instance, if users have two target portals and two VMkernel NICs, they see four paths when using IPv4 but see only two paths when using IPv6. Because there are no paths for failover, path policy setup does not make sense.

Workaround: Use IPv4 and port binding, or configure the storage array and the ESX/ESXi host with LOCAL SCOPE IPv6 addresses on the same subnet (switch segment). You cannot currently use global scope IPv6 with port binding.

The ESX/ESXi host does not register a path added from Storage Manager Application
When you add a new port on a storage system using Storage Manager Application, your ESX/ESXi host does not display a new path to the storage system.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Make sure the port is accessible by the ESX/ESXi host.

Remove the physical connection for the newly added port.

Wait for the Device Delay Missing timer to expire.

Reconnect the physical connection.

Path for a device cannot be unclaimed after you disable autoclaiming
You cannot unclaim a path for a device after you set the autoclaiming option to Off/Disabled.

Workaround: The autoclaiming option is not supported in ESX/ESXi 4.0.

On rare occasions, after repeated SAN path failovers, operations that involve VMFS changes might fail for all ESX/ESXi hosts accessing a particular LUN
On rare occasions, after repeated path failovers to a particular SAN LUN, attempts to perform such operations as VMFS datastore creation, vMotion, and so on might fail on all ESX/ESXi hosts accessing this LUN. The following warnings appear in the log files of all hosts:

I/O failed due to too many reservation conflicts.

Reservation error: SCSI reservation conflict

If you see the reservation conflict messages on all hosts accessing the LUN, this indicates that the problem is caused by the SCSI reservations for the LUN that are not completely cleaned up.

Workaround: Run the following LUN reset command from any system in the cluster to remove the SCSI reservation:

vmkfstools -L lunreset /vmfs/devices/disks/

vCenter Server fails to open RDM after the RDMs LUN number changes
VMware does not support LUN number (position) changes within the target. When the LUN number changes vCenter Server fails to open the RDM that is built on that LUN. A raw device mapping file (RDM) resides on the VMFS datastore and points to a LUN. The LUN number shows the position of the LUN within the target. When this number (or position) changes, the vml identifier (vml_ID) for the RDM file also changes. For example, you cant disconnect VMFS datastores and reconnect them in a different order. This changes the identification of the LUN so that it is no longer accessible and vCenter Server prevents the virtual machine from powering on. vSphere Client uses the vml_ID for backward compatibility.

Workaround: Remove the RDM and re-create it. This generates a new vml_ID that the LUN can recognize.

vSphere Client displays drive fault alerts when the drive is not present on ESX and ESXi hosts with multi-node IBM systems
On some multi-node IBM systems, the BMC firmware reports a drive fault for drive slots when no drive is present. The vSphere Client reports the Drive Fault sensor as being in an Alert state. The same faults are shown in the IBM iLOM interface.

Workaround: None. A defect report is filed with IBM to address this issue.

NAS datastores report incorrect available space
When you view the available space for an ESX/ESXi host by using the df (ESXi) or vdf (ESX) command in the host service console, the space reported for ESX/ESXi NAS datastores is free space, not available space. The space reported for NFS volumes in the Free column when you select Storage > Datastores on the vSphere Client Configuration tab, also reports free space, and not the available space. In both cases, free space can be different from available space.

ESX file systems do not distinguish between free blocks and available blocks, but always report free blocks for both block types (specifically, f_bfree and f_bavail fields of struct statfs). For NFS volumes, free blocks and available might can be different.

Workaround: You can check NFS servers to get correct information regarding available space. No workarounds are available for ESX/ESXi.

Harmless warning messages concerning region conflicts are logged in the VMkernel logs for some IBM servers
When the SATA/IDE controller works in legacy PCI mode in the PCI config space, an error message similar to the following might appear in the VMkernel logs:

Workaround: Such error messages are harmless and can be safely ignored.

Granting permissions to modify a datastore allows users to modify system related files
Granting all datastore modification privileges to users enables them to change the system files on the local ESX datastore, including the service console VMDK file (esxconsole.vmdk). This file is located in a datastore in the /esxconsole-
folder. If a user renames the esxconsole folder or the VMDK file, the ESX host cannot reboot.

Workaround: Allow only administrators to modify datastores. Make certain that users who have permission to modify datastores are aware of the problems that occur when the esxconsole folder or the esxconsole.VMDK file is renamed.

Using Storage vMotion to relocate a virtual machine back to its source volume might result in an insufficient disk space error
When you use Storage vMotion to move a virtual machine to another datastore and then back to its source volume, the vSphere Client does not immediately refresh the size of the source datastore, resulting in an error.

Workaround: Refresh the datastore in the vSphere Client. If the reported size of the datastore does not change after one attempt, wait for 30 minutes and refresh again.

vmfs-undelete utility is not available for ESX/ESXi 4.0
ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 4 included a utility called vmfs-undelete, which could be used to recover deleted .vmdk files if they were not overwritten at the block level. This utility is not available with ESX/ESXi 4.0.

Workaround: None. Deleted .vmdk files cannot be recovered.

When the storage processor of the HP MSA2012fc storage array is reset, critical alerts are erroneously issued
Resetting the storage processor of the HP MSA2012fc storage array causes the ESX/ESXi native multipath driver (NMP) module to send alerts or critical entries to vmkernel logs. These alert messages indicate that the physical media has changed for the device. However, these messages do not apply to all LUN types. They are only critical for data LUNs but do not apply to management LUNs.

Workaround: No workaround. In this scenario, you can safely ignore alerts logged in reference to management LUNs.

A virtual machine can go into an endless loop of resetting SCSI LUNs, which prevents the virtual machine from being shut down
When SCSI drivers (either BusLogic or LSI Logic) of a virtual machine resets its LUNs for any reason, the reset can go into endless loop.
Attempts to kill the virtual machine are not successful.

The guest operating system reports I/O errors related to LSI controllers
Online controller firmware upgrades on an array with an LSI controller might cause I/O failures on virtual machines accessing the array. Many arrays use an LSI controller. For example, the following is a list of a few of the common arrays using LSI controllers:

IBM DS48xx series

IBM
DS 3xxx series

Dell MD3xxx series

Sun STK Flexline series

Workaround: Before upgrading the firmware on a storage controller, manually trespass all the LUNs to the other storage controller and ensure that the ESX/ESXi host is not sending I/O to the storage controller.

Service console commands might provide misleading information about Cisco UCS Qlogic FCoE controllers On Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) systems with a Qlogic FCoE controller, service console commands esxcfg-scsidevs -a and lspci might not identify the controller as a Qlogic FCoE controller, but instead specify the controller as a Fibre Channel controller.

For example, the output of the following service console commands does not identify the Cisco UCS Qlogic FCoE controllers specifically as FCoE controllers.

Supported Hardware

VMware ESX might fail to boot on Dell 2900 servers
If your Dell 2900 server has a version of BIOS earlier than 2.1.1, ESX VMkernel might stop responding while booting. This is due to a bug in the Dell BIOS, which is fixed in BIOS version 2.1.1.

Workaround: Upgrade BIOS to the version 2.1.1 or later.

No CIM indication alerts are received when the power supply cable and power supply unit are reinserted into HP servers
No new SEL(IML) entries are created for power supply cable and power supply unit reinsertion into HP servers when recovering a failed power supply. As a result, no CIM indication alerts are generated for these events.

Workaround: None

Core Dump fails with a timeout message
Configuring a device connected to a Perc 4/DC controller as a core dump device on which to store crash dumps in the event of a system crash can lead to timeouts and unsaved core dumps. This timeout behavior has been observed with different firmware versions on this controller (for example, 352B and 352D) and only for system crashes. No issues have been observed with I/O to the same device when the system is running.

Workaround: Do not configure a device connected to the Perc 4/DC controller as a core dump device for ESX/ESXi 4.0 systems.

Slow performance during virtual machine power-On or disk I/O on ESX/ESXi on the HP G6 Platform with P410i or P410 Smart Array Controller
Some of these hosts might show slow performance during virtual machine power on or while generating disk I/O. The major symptom is degraded I/O performance, causing large numbers of error messages similar to the following to be logged to /var/log/messages.

On certain versions of vSphere Client, the battery status might be incorrectly listed as an alert
In vSphere Client from the Hardware Status tab, when the battery is in its learn cycle, the battery status provides an alert message indicating that the health state of the battery is not good. However, the battery level is actually fine.

Workaround: None.

A "Detected Tx Hang" message appears in the VMkernel log
Under a heavy load, due to hardware errata, some variants of e1000 NICs might lock up. ESX/ESXi detects the issue and automatically resets the card. This issue is related to Tx packets, TCP workloads, and TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO).

Workaround: You can disable TSO by setting the /adv/Net/UseHwTSO option to 0 in the esx.conf file.

Problems with TEAC DV-28E-V DVD drive
If an ESX/ESXi host is physically connected to a TEAC DV-28E-V DVD drive with old firmware (for example, C.AB), the virtual machine, host daemon, or ESX/ESXi host might become non responsive. The problem does not occur each time, and it is more likely to occur with Windows virtual machines.

Workaround: Upgrade the DVD drive firmware to the latest version or replace the DVD drive with a different model.

Upgrade and Installation

The vCenter Server system's Database Upgrade wizard might overestimate the disk space requirement during an upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server 4.0
During the upgrade of VirtualCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server 4.0, the Database Upgrade wizard can show an incorrect value in the database disk space estimation. The estimation shown is typically higher than the actual space required.

Workaround: None

vSphere Client installation might fail with Error 1603 if you do not have an active Internet connection
You can install the vSphere Client in two ways: from the vCenter Server media or by clicking a link on the ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server Welcome screen. The installer on the vCenter Server media (.iso file or .zip file) is self-contained, including a full .NET installer in addition to the vSphere Client installer. The installer called through the Welcome screen includes a vSphere Client installer that makes a call to the Web to get .NET installer components.

If you do not have an Internet connection, the second vSphere Client installation method will fail with Error 1603 unless you already have .NET 3.0 SP1 installed on your system.

Workaround: Establish an Internet connection before attempting the download, install the vSphere Client from the vCenter Server media, or install .NET 3.0 SP1 before clicking the link on the Welcome screen.

Opening performance charts after an upgrade results in an error message
After you perform an upgrade using the Microsoft SQL Express edition database, the vSphere Client displays the error message Perf Charts service experienced an internal error when you open performance charts. This happens because the installer does not restart the database service after making changes in the database settings.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service in Windows.

Restart the database service.

Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

Open a new vSphere Client instance and log into vCenter Server.

Some kickstart commands for scripted installations of ESX 4.0 have been deprecated or are not supported in this release
If you have an install script that does not work for ESX 4.0, this might be because the script contains deprecated or unsupported commands. The following kickstart commands are deprecated:

If you choose a shared datastore for the service console, the software installer or upgrade tool does not issue a warning
For ESX 4.0, the service console must be installed on a VMFS datastore that is resident on a host's local disk or on a SAN disk that is masked and zoned to that particular host only. This release does not support installing the service console on a datastore that is shared between hosts. When you install ESX 4.0 or upgrade to ESX 4.0, you must select a VMFS datastore location for the service console (esxconsole.vmdk). If you select a datastore that is shared between hosts, the software installer or upgrade tool does not issue a warning.

Workaround: Do not install the service console on a VMFS datastore shared between hosts.

If SQL Native Client is already installed, you cannot install vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database
When you are installing vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database, if SQL Native Client is already installed, the installation fails with the following error message:

An Installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation using a valid copy of the installation package sqlcli.msi.

Workaround: Uninstall SQL Native Client if it is not used by another application. Then, install vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database.

The vmxnet driver is not installed automatically when you install or upgrade VMware Tools
When you install or upgrade VMware Tools on a virtual machine running the Windows NT guest operating system, the vmxnet driver is not installed automatically.

Workaround: Install the vmxnet driver manually. To do this, perform the following steps:

Log in to the virtual machine and right-click Network Neighborhood.

Click Properties and select the Adapters tab.

Click Have Disk and enter the path to the driver:C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\

Reboot the virtual machine.

The graphical installer does not load when booting ESX on a Dell Precision T3400 workstation
When you try to use the graphical installer to install ESX on a Dell Precision T3400 workstation, the installation fails.

Workaround: Use the text installer instead.

Cannot reinstall or uninstall product after terminating the uninstallation of vSphere Client 4.0
If vSphere Client installation is interrupted, a subsequent installation or uninstallation of the vSphere Client 4.0 results in the following error message:

The VMware Web Access kickstart script generator is not supported
For ESX scripted installation, the VMware Web Access script generator is not available in vSphere 4.0.

Workaround: You can use the kickstart script that is auto-generated after an interactive installation. After the first interactive installation of ESX, the installer creates a /root/ks.cfg script in the ESX file system. This script reflects the choices you made in the interactive installation. For a complete list of supported commands and a sample script, see the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide.

Workaround: Navigate to the installation directory and delete the Virtual Infrastructure Client directory.

A minimum of 650MB of free space on the boot drive is required to install vCenter Server
Although vCenter Server itself does not need to be installed on the boot drive, some required components must be installed on the boot drive. 650MB of free space is required at installation time to accommodate these required components as well as temporary files used during the installation.

Workaround: Ensure that you have at least 650MB of free space on the boot drive before installing vCenter Server.

vSphere Client 4.0 download times out with an error message when you connect VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows 2003 machine to vCenter Server or an ESX/ESXi host
If you connect a VI Client 2.0.x instance to vCenter Server 4.0 or an ESX/ESXi 4.0 host, vSphere Client 4.0 is automatically downloaded onto the Windows machine where the VI Client resides. This operation relies on Internet Explorer to perform this download. By default, Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 systems blocks the download if the VI Client instance is VI Client 2.0.x.

ESX/ESXi installation might fail on IBM x336 machines due to BIOS incompatibility
On some IBM x336 machines, the ESX/ESXi installation process might stop. This is caused by a bug in the machine's BIOS.

Workaround: Update the machine's BIOS to version 1.15 prior to installing ESX or ESXi Installable.

When you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX host upgrade, the upgrade might fail
When you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX upgrade, the upgrade might fail with the following error:

An error occurred during upgrade. Connection with upgrade agent has been lost.

This happens when the upgrade is 26 percent complete. In the service console, the process halts on Stopping VMware ESX server Management services.

Workaround: Reboot the ESX host manually by pressing the reset button. The ESX upgrade continues and completes successfully, but vSphere Host Update Utility does not display the progress. To view the current host status from vSphere Host Update Utility, click Retry.

When you install ESX using the local DVD method and you use a particular DVD model, the ESX installation fails
Local installation of ESX fails when you use SONY AMAX 270 DVD RW AW-Q170A, Rev: 1.70. The DVD is not detected.

Workaround: Upgrade the firmware to SONY DVD RW AW-Q170A, Rev: 1.74, and then retry the installation.

vCenter Server database upgrade fails for Oracle 10gR2 database with certain user privileges
If you upgrade VirtualCenter Server 2.x to vCenter Server version 4.0 and you have connect, create view, create any sequence, create any table, and execute on dbms_lock privileges on the database (Oracle 10gR2), the database upgrade fails. The VCDatabaseUpgrade.log file shows following error:

Workaround: As database administrator, enlarge the user tablespace or grant the unlimited tablespace privilege to the user who performs the upgrade.

vCenter Server installation fails on Windows Server 2008 when using a nonsystem user account
When you specify a non-system user during installation, vCenter Server installation fails with the following error message:

Failure to create vCenter repository

Workaround: On the system where vCenter Server is being installed, turn off the User Account Control option under Control Panel > User Accounts before you install vCenter Server. Specify the non-system user during vCenter Server installation.

Incompatible legacy plug-ins appear as enabled in the vSphere Plug-in Manager after upgrading to vCenter Server 4.0
If you have VirtualCenter 2.5 installed with VMware Update Manager 1.0 or VMware Converter Enterprise for VirtualCenter 2.5, and you upgrade to vCenter Server 4.0, the legacy plug-ins appear as installed and enabled in the vSphere Client Plug-in Manager. However, earlier versions of the plug-in modules are not compatible with vCenter Server 4.0. In such cases, the plug-ins might be available, but are not functional.

Cannot log in to VirtualCenter Server 2.5 after installing VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and vSphere Client 4.0 and then uninstalling VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows Vista system
After you uninstall the VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows Vista machine where the VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and the vSphere Client 4.0 coexist, you cannot log in to vCenter Server 2.5. Login fails with the following message:

Class not registered(Exception from HRESULT:0x80040154(REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))

Workaround: Disable the User Account Control setting on the system where VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and vSphere Client 4.0 coexist,or uninstall and reinstall VI Client 2.5.

The ESX/ESXi installer lists local SAS storage devices in the Remote Storage section
When displaying storage locations for ESX or ESXi Installable to be installed on, the installer lists a local SAS storage device in the Remote Storage section. This happens because ESX/ESXi cannot determine whether the SAS storage device is local or remote and always treats it as remote.

Workaround: None

When you install ESX on some Dell servers using the DRAC5 virtual CD-ROM method, the ESX installation fails
The virtual media becomes disconnected when you try to install ESX on some Dell PowerEdge servers by using the DRAC5 virtual CD-ROM method.

Workaround: Instead of using virtual media, install ESX from the local CD-ROM, or update the firmware version to Version 1.33 (08.03.10).

If vSphere Host Update Utility loses its network connection to the ESX host, the host upgrade might not work
If you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX/ESXi host upgrade and the utility loses its network connection to the host, the host might not be completely upgraded. When this happens, the utility might stop, or you might see the following error message:

Failed to run compatibility check on the host.

Workaround: Close the utility, fix the network connection, restart the utility, and rerun the upgrade.

vCenter Server installer reports incorrect warning message during an installation or upgrade
During installation or upgrade, the vCenter Server installer reports a warning message to enable TCP/IP and named pipes for remote connections. This message is reported if you use a local SQL Server database and enter the server name something other than (local) and "." when you create DSN.

Workaround: Ignore the warning and click OK to continue the installation or upgrade.

Workaround: Delete libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll located at the following path:C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher
Alternatively, uninstall VI Client version 2.5.

vCenter Server installation on Windows Server 2008 with a remote SQL Server database fails in some circumstances
If you install vCenter Server on Windows 2008, using a remote SQL Server database with Windows authentication for SQL Server, and a domain user for the DSN that is different from the vCenter Server system login, the installation does not proceed and the installer displays the following error message:

25003.Setup failed to create the vCenter repository

Workaround: In these circumstances, use the same login credentials for vCenter Server and for the SQL Server DSN.

Upgrading the hardware version of Windows virtual machines might require driver updates
Upgrading the hardware version of a Windows virtual machine to hardware version 7 on an ESX 4.0 host will cause the Flexible network adapter to incorrectly use the AMD PCNet family PCI Ethernet adapter (pcnetpci5.sys) driver and have 10Mbps speed. The correct driver is the VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter (vmxnet.sys) driver.

Workaround: Manually update the driver for the Flexible NIC to the VMware Accelerated AMD PCnet Adapter (vmxnet.sys) driver by pointing to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\vmware-nic.inf from the virtual machine Windows guest.

An ESX host's resource pool settings might not be preserved after upgrading from ESX Server 3.0.x or ESX Server 3.5.x to ESX 4.0
If the ESX host is configured to reserve all, most, or almost all available host capacity in the resource pool CPU reservation and memory reservation settings, the settings might not be preserved after upgrading from ESX Server 3.0.x or ESX 3.5.x to ESX 4.0. After an upgrade, the reservation settings drop to zero. This issue applies to standalone hosts only. DRS clusters are not affected.

Workaround: Do not reserve all or close to all available host capacity in the resource pool CPU reservation and memory reservation settings. If you do, note the information related to the host-level resource pool settings before the upgrade and then change the information manually after the upgrade.

The vSphere Host Update Utility reports an error after attempting to upgrade an ESX host after the initial upgrade fails
If you try to upgrade a host by using the Retry option after the initial upgrade fails, the vSphere Host Update Utility might report the error:

Upgrade Agent Error:1

Workaround: Close and restart the vSphere Host Update Utility. Then run the host upgrade.

The Next run time value for some scheduled tasks is not preserved after you upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x to vCenter Server 4.0
If you upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x to vCenter Server 4.0, the Next run time value for some scheduled tasks might not be preserved and the tasks might run unexpectedly. For example, if a task is scheduled to run at 10:00 am every day, it might run at 11:30 am after the upgrade.

This problem occurs because of differences in the way that VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x and vCenter Server 4.0 calculate the next run time. You see this behavior only when the following conditions exist:

You have scheduled tasks, for which you edited the run time after the tasks were initially scheduled so that they now have a different Next run time.

The newly scheduled Next run time has not yet occurred.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Wait for the tasks to run at their scheduled Next run time before upgrading.

After you upgrade from vCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server 4.0, edit and save the scheduled task. This process recalculates the Next run time of the task to its correct value.

ESX Server 2.5 virtual machines with non-persistent disks upgraded to ESX 4.0 might enter a suspended state
When you upgrade the virtual hardware of an ESX Server 2.5 virtual machine with non-persistent disks (identifiable by config version = 6, hardware version = 3) in ESX 4.0, the virtual machine will be incorrectly set to autorevert. If you take snapshots on this virtual machine (identifiable by config version = 8, hardware version = 7) in ESX 4.0, the virtual machine might enter a suspended state while reconfiguring its virtual hardware devices in the powered-off state.

Workaround: Remove the entry snapshot.action = "autoRevert" from the configuration file manually after you upgrade the virtual machine.

Installation or upgrade of vCenter Server 4.0 might fail with disk space error
During installation of vCenter Server 4.0, when you provide the amount of free space estimated by the installer, the installation might fail and issue a Not enough disk space error message. As a result, you might have to rerun the installation.

Workaround: Provide at least 1GB of free space in addition to the amount recommended by the installer.

Virtual machine hardware upgrades from version 4 to version 7 cause Solaris guests lose their network settings
Virtual machine hardware upgrades from version 4 to version 7 changes the PCI bus location of virtual network adapters in guests. Solaris does not detect the adapters and changes the numbering of its network interfaces (for example, e1000g0 becomes e1000g1). This numbering change occurs because Solaris IP settings are associated with interface names, so it appears that the network settings have been lost and the guest is likely not to have proper connectivity.

Workaround: Determine the new interface names after the virtual machine hardware upgrade by using the prtconf -D command, and then rename all the old configuration files to their new names. For example, e1000g0 might become e1000g1, so every /etc/*e1000g0 file should be renamed to its /etc/*e1000g1 equivalent.

The vCenter Server installer cannot detect service ports if the services are not running
When you install vCenter Server and accept the default ports, if those ports are being used by services that are not running, the installer cannot validate the ports. The installation fails, and an error message might appear, depending on which port is in use.

This problem does not affect IIS services. IIS services are correctly validated, regardless of whether the services are running.

Workaround: Verify which ports are being used for services that are not running before beginning the installation and avoid using those ports.

vCenter Server service might not start if vCenter Server is installed as a local system account on a local Microsoft SQL Server database with Integrated Windows NT Authentication
If you install an instance of vCenter Server as a local system account on a local SQL Server database with Integrated Windows NT Authentication and then add an Integrated Windows NT Authentication user to the local database server with the same default database as vCenter Server, vCenter Server might not start.

Workaround: Remove the Integrated Windows NT Authentication user from the local SQL database server. Alternatively, change the default database for the local system user account to the vCenter Server database for the SQL Server user account setup.

Some commands might not work in the %pre and %post sections of kickstart file
Some commands, such as mount, supported for installation of previous versions of ESX with kickstart files might not work with the %pre and %post sections in the kickstart file for installations of ESX 4.0.

Workaround: Update the %pre and %post sections of kickstart files used in installation scripts.

Applicable bulletins are not listed when scanning the host machine using vihostupdate command
Scanning the host machine by using vihostupdate --scan command for the applicable bulletins, after downloading the bundle ZIP file for ESX 4.0 Update 4, does not list the all the bulletins contained in the bundle.

Workaround: Use the esxupdate utility to list the available bulletins in the ESX 4.0 Update 4 bundle. For more information on the esxupdate utility, see the ESX 4 Patch Management Guide.

esxupdate downloads the latest version of a VIB if the dependent version is not available in the bulletin list
When you install a patch on ESX by using the esxupdate command, the command downloads the latest version of a VIB instead of the specific version that your ESX installation uses. Such an update occurs when your installation requires a specific version of the VIB, and that version of VIB is not available in the bulletin list.

vCenter Server, vSphere Client, and vSphere Web Access

Alarms with health status trigger conditions are not migrated to vSphere 4.0
The vSphere 4.0 alarm triggers functionality has been enhanced to contain additional alarm triggers for host health status. In the process, the generic Host Health State trigger was removed. As a result, alarms that contained this trigger are no longer available in vSphere 4.0.

Workaround:
Use the vSphere Client to recreate the alarms. You can use any of the following pre configured VMware alarms to monitor host health state:

Host battery status

Host hardware fan status

Host hardware power status

Host hardware temperature status

Host hardware system board status

Host hardware voltage

Host memory status

Host processor status

Host storage status

If the pre configured alarms do not handle the health state you want to monitor, you can create a custom host alarm that uses the Hardware Health changed event trigger. You must manually define the conditions that trigger for this event alarm. In addition, you must manually set which action occurs when the alarm triggers.

Note: The pre configured alarms already have default trigger conditions defined for them. You only need to set which action occurs when the alarm triggers.

Web Access service does not start after finishing ESX installation
When you use Web Access to connect to an ESX host, the following message appears:

503 Service Unavailable

The reason is that after you finish installing ESX, the Web Access service does not start automatically.

Workaround: To start the Web Access service on the ESX host, run the following command: service vmware-webAccess start

Using the vSphere Client Delete All option to remove virtual machine snapshots might leave the snapshot disk files in the virtual machine folder
This behavior occurs only when you previously used the snapshot to create linked clones and then deleted them from the vCenter Server. If you now attempt to remove the snapshot using the Snapshot Managers Delete All option, the snapshot is deleted. However, the snapshot disk is not consolidated with the parent disk and is left undeleted in the virtual machine folder.

Workaround: Instead of using the "Delete All" option, use the "Delete" option to remove the snapshot.

Configuring NTP in the vSphere Client modifies the time zone in the host
Host time zone currently cannot be configured through the vSphere Client, but can be configured through the service console. Host NTP settings can be configured through the vSphere Client. If the host time zone is manually changed and NTP settings are subsequently configured through the vSphere Client, the host time zone is overwritten by the vSphere Client with an old value.

Workaround: After manually changing the host time zone, close and reconnect any connected clients. Clients will obtain the new time zone value.

If a system has virtual network adapter, Guided Consolidation might compute a larger number of NICs for that system than the number of physical NICs
The number of NICs for a system computed by Guided Consolidation can be larger than the number of physical NICs for the system if the system has virtual network adapters. In this case, you might get the following warning during the Plan Consolidation phase: "Host does not have the desired number of VM networks. A consolidation will result in the mapping of multiple networks of the physical computer to a single VM network." This happens for any machine with virtual NICs (for example, for any virtual machine and any (physical or virtual) machine running VMware Workstation or other hosted virtualization platform).

Workaround: No workaround needed. You can ignore the warning.

The Hardware Status tab does not display the ESX/ESXi host's hardware status information
The Hardware Status tab in the vSphere Client does not populate the hardware status of the selected ESX/ESXi host when the vCenter Server machine or ESX/ESXi host are running in pure IPv6 mode.

Workaround: Add and configure the IPv4 interface for both the vCenter Server machine and the ESX/ESXi host.

Guided Consolidation cannot import systems that are running vCenter Converter
Guided Consolidation import operations encounter a problem when the source system (the imported system) is running vCenter Converter. Guided Consolidation imports the system and attempts to uninstall vCenter Converter from the source system. The import operation succeeds but the following error is displayed when Guided Consolidation attempts to uninstall vCenter Converter:

VMware Converter Agent Install failed.

Workaround: Uninstall vCenter Converter from source systems before attempting to import them using Guided Consolidation.

Web shortcuts to ESX Server 3.5 virtual machines stop working when you upgrade to ESX 4.0
Web shortcuts created for ESX Server 3.5 virtual machines cannot be accessed by users when you upgrade to ESX 4.0. vSphere Web Access 4.0 does not support the URLs for ESX 3.5. User cannot access virtual machines using the URLs created for ESX Server 3.5.

Workaround: Use vSphere Web Access 4.0 to create Web shortcuts that are valid for ESX 4.0 and distribute them to your users. For more information about creating Web shortcuts, see the vSphere Web Access Administrator's Guide.

For VMDirectPath Gen I, sharing a dual-function QLogic 2532 adapter between a virtual machine and either another virtual machine or the VMkernel might result in data corruption
When you configure a dual-function QLogic 2532 adapter for VMDirectPath IO, and assign the first PCI function to a virtual machine and the second to either the VMkernel or another virtual machine, data corruption might occur. This happens because both ports use the same credentials to log in to the fabric and have the same storage visibility. VMware does not support this configuration for VMDirectPath IO.

Workaround: If you cannot avoid sharing the dual-function adapter between a virtual machine and the VMkernel, assign the first PCI function to the virtual machine and the second to the VMkernel. The PCI functions cannot be split between two virtual machines.

The vSphere Client does not update sensors that are associated with physical events
The vSphere Client does not always update sensor status. Some events can trigger an update, such as a bad power supply or the removal of a redundant disk. Other events, such as chassis intrusion and fan removal, might not trigger an update to the sensor status.

Workaround: None

vCenter Server allows addition of the same ESX/ESXi system twice with two different IPv6 addresses
If you add an ESX/ESXi system to the vCenter inventory, and if that system is already managed by vCenter under a different IP address, the vCenter Server does not detect the problem.
The ESX/ESXi system appears in the inventory with a new IP address, with status disconnected. Connections to the ESX/ESXi system that use the old IP address remain active.

Workaround: Do not add the same ESX/ESXi system twice.

Restarting mgmt-vmware does not restart vmware-webAccess
When you restart the mgmt-vmware service, the vmware-webAccess service does not restart. Instead, the service stops after a while and you cannot use Web Access to connect to the ESX host.

Workaround: Start the vmware-webAccess service manually. Do this by running the following command in the ESX service console: service vmware-webAccess start

Adapter Type drop-down menu missing vmxnet3 option on virtual machine running SUSE Enterprise Linux
A virtual machine running SLES 10 or SLES 11 for which SLES is selected as the guest operating system type does not include vmxnet3 in the Adapter Type drop-down menu. The problem is most likely to occur in virtual machines that are migrated from ESX Server 3.x to ESX 4.x, but it might also occur in other circumstances.

Workaround: The vmxnet3 option becomes available if you change the guest operating system type from SLES to SLES10 or SLES11.

Power off the virtual machine.

Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

In the Options tab, click General Options.

In the version field, select either SLES10 or SLES11.

Virtual machines disappear from the virtual switch diagram in the Networking View for host configuration
In the vSphere Client Networking tab for a host, virtual machines are represented in the virtual switch diagram. If you select another host and then return to the Networking tab of the first host, the virtual machines might disappear from the virtual switch diagram.

Workaround: Select a different view in the Configuration tab, such as Network Adapters, Storage, or Storage Adapters, and return to the Networking tab.

Using special characters in virtual machine names during virtual machine creation results in an error when connected to vCenter Server with vSphere Web Access
When connected to vCenter Server with vSphere Web Access, using special characters, such as :"|\'{}[]-*^&@#!`~, in the virtual machine name during virtual machine creation triggers the following error:RuntimeFault: A general system error occurred.

Workaround: None

vSphere Web Access displays incorrect virtual machine CPU speed after the number of virtual processors is increased
In vSphere Web Access, the Performance section of the Summary tab for a selected virtual machine displays incorrect information about CPU speed after the number of CPUs for the virtual machine has been increased. For example, if the number of CPUs for a virtual machine are increased from 1 CPU with a clock speed of 1.559Mhz to 2 CPUs, vSphere Web Access should display the number of CPUs and their clock speed as 2 x 1.559Mhz. However, the clock speed is incorrectly displayed as 3.117 (1.559 multiplied by 2).

Workaround: None

If you change the HTTPS port number in the SFCB configuration file (sfcb.cfg) to a port other than the default and restart the SFCB (CIM) server, the health status of the ESX/ESXi host server components does not appear on the Hardware Status tab
This behavior is also seen if you log directly in to an ESX/ESXi host and click the Configuration tab to view the health status. Status information for the server components does not appear.

This problem occurs because vCenter Server and the SFCB server are communicating on different ports.

Workaround: Make sure that the SFCB server communicates only through the default port.

Starting or stopping the vctomcat Web service at the Windows command prompt might result in an error message
On Windows operating systems, if you use the net start and net stop commands to start and stop the vctomcat Web service, the following error message might appear:

The service is not responding to the control function.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2186.

Workaround: You can ignore this error message. If you want to stop the error message from occurring, modify the registry to increase the default timeout value for the service control manager (SCM).
For more information, see the following Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922918.

Overview performance charts do not display after upgrade from vCenter Server 2.5 with SQL Express bundled database
If you upgrade from a vCenter Server 2.5 to vCenter Server 4.0 using an SQL Express bundled database, Overview performance charts won't display. When you open the Overview view of the Performance tab, the following error appears:

STATs Report service internal error

This error occurs because the vCenter Server upgrade tool cannot reconfigure the existing database. You must manually perform the configuration.

Error message appears if you add a second virtual disk to a virtual machine
Suppose you create a virtual machine with default options by using Web Access connected to ESX/ESXi 4.0. If you then connect from vSphere Web Access to the vCenter Server that manages the ESX/ESXi host and add a second virtual disk to the same virtual machine with the option Create a New Virtual Disk, the error The specified file already exists on the server appears.

Workaround: Use the vSphere Client to connect to vCenter Server and add a second virtual disk to the virtual machine.

The vc-support command uses a 64-bit DSN application and cannot gather data from the vCenter Server database
When you use the VMware cscript vc-support.wsf command to retrieve data from the vCenter Server database, the default Microsoft cscript.exe application is used. This application is configured to use a 64-bit DSN rather than a 32-bit DSN, which is required by the vCenter Server database. As a result, errors occur and you cannot retrieve the data.

Workaround: At a system prompt, run the vc-support.wsf command with the 32-bit DSN cscript.exe application:

%windir%\SysWOW64\cscript.exe vc-support.wsf

The vSphere Client Roles menu does not display role assignments for all vCenter Server systems in a Linked Mode group
When you create a role on a remote vCenter Server system in a Linked Mode group, the changes you make are propagated to all other vCenter Server systems in the group.
However, the role appears as assigned only on the systems that have permissions associated with the role. If you remove a role, the operation only checks the status
of the role on the currently selected vCenter Server system. However, it removes the role from all vCenter Server systems in the Linked Mode group without issuing a warning that the role might be in use on the other servers.

Workaround: Before you delete a role from vCenter Server system, ensure that the role is not being used across other vCenter Server systems. To see if a role is in use, go to the Roles view and use the navigation bar to select each vCenter Server system in the group. The role's usage is displayed for the selected vCenter Server system.

Snapshot deletion and virtual machine hot clone operations might take a long time when the virtual machine runs a heavy workload
Deleting a snapshot or cloning a powered-on virtual machine might take a long time to complete when the virtual machine is running a heavy input/output workload. For example, when the virtual machine writes to its local disks, the input/output load is very heavy.

Workaround: Avoid these operations when the virtual machine is writing to its local disks or issuing any other heavy input/output workloads. This can help to reduce the completion time.

Joining a Linked mode group after installation is unsuccessful if UAC is enabled on Windows Server 2008
When User Account Control (UAC) is enabled on Windows Server 2008 32- or 64-bit operating systems and you try to join a machine to a Linked Mode group on a system that is
already running vCenter Server, the link completes without any errors, but it is unsuccessful. Only one vCenter Server appears in the inventory list.

Workaround: Complete the following procedures.

After installation, perform the following steps to turn off UAC before joining a Linked Mode group:

Select User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer and click OK.

Reboot the machine when prompted.

Removing a virtual machine's virtual switch that is being used might result in an error message
If you try to remove a virtual switch that a powered-on virtual machine is using, an error message appears. The warning message should alert you that the virtual switch is in use and cannot be removed. Removing virtual switches in such cases might cause the virtual machine to become unusable.

Workaround: Do not remove a virtual switch that is in use.

You cannot re-display the toolbar in the Reports view of the Storage Views tab after you hide it
The Reports view of the Storage Views tab has a toolbar that contains an object filter menu and a search field. These controls enable you to filter the reports tables based on object type, storage attributes, and keywords. If you hide the toolbar by selecting Hide from the toolbar's right-click menu, there is no mechanism to re-display it.

Workaround: Close and reopen the vSphere Client.

Joining two vCenter Server instances fails with an error message in status.txt about failure to remove VMwareVCMSDS
Joining an existing standalone vCenter Server instance to a Linked Mode group causes the vCenter Server installer to fail. When this happens, vCenter Server does not start on the machine where you are performing the installation. Also, messages indicating problems with LDAP connectivity or the LDAP service being unreachable are written to the
/status.txt file, where
is the temporary directory defined on your Windows system. To diagnose this problem, open the status.txt file and look for the following message: [2009-03-06 21:44:55 SEVERE] Operation "Join instance VMwareVCMSDS" failed: : Action: Join Instance
Action: Removal of standalone instance
Action: Remove Instance
Problem: Removal of instance VMwareVCMSDS failed: The removal wizard was not able to remove all of the components. To complete removal, run "Adamuninstall.exe /i:
" after resolving the following error:

Folder '
\VMwareVCMSDS' could not be deleted.
The directory is not empty.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

From a command prompt with administrator-level privileges, change directories to the vCenter Server installation directory.

Networking problems and errors might occur when analyzing machines with VMware Guided Consolidation
When a large number of machines are under analysis for Guided Consolidation, the vCenter Collector Provider Services component of Guided Consolidation might be mistaken for a virus or worm by the operating system on which the Guided Consolidation functionality is installed. This occurs when the analysis operation encounters a large number of machines that have invalid IP addresses or name resolution issues. As a result, a bottleneck occurs in the network and error messages appear.

Workaround: Do not add machines for analysis if they are unreachable. If you add machines by name, make sure the NetBIOS name is resolvable and reachable. If you add machines by IP address, make sure the IP address is static.

Multiple SSL warning messages appear when vCenter Server systems are joined in a Linked Mode group
If multiple vCenter Server systems are joined in a Linked Mode group and do not use SSL certificates for authentication, multiple SSL warnings might be displayed in the vSphere Client when you log in.

Workaround: Address each warning individually. Select the Always ignore this certificate option on each host. You must configure vCenter Servers to use SSL certificates.

No vSphere Web Access connection to vCenter Server when you change the HTTP port from vSphere Client
When you connect to vCenter Server with the vSphere Client, you can change the HTTP port of the vCenter Server (Administration > vCenter Server Settings > Web Service > Ports > HTTP). This port allows you to connect to vCenter Server by using vSphere Web Access. If you change the HTTP port value, vSphere Web Access might become unavailable to all users.

Workaround: Complete the following steps to change the port settings in the vSphere Web Access configuration files so that it can receive connections on the port you specified.

Log in to your vCenter Server machine and open the following directory:

NOTE: Restarting the service will impact connections to vCenter Server systems in Linked Mode and existing vSphere Web Access connections.

Clear your browser cache.

Use http://localhost:
/ui to connect to vCenter Server through vSphere Web Access.

vSphere Client displays inaccurate information in the General section of the Summary tab for hosts
Under heavy load, the right-hand panel in the vSphere Client might fail to refresh and displays an inaccurate information in the General section.

Workaround: You may need to refresh the vSphere Client manually by selecting a different host, and then select the first host again.

For large vCenter Server inventories, when you open the vSphere Client in Linked Mode with the inventories of all vCenter Server systems fully expanded, the vSphere Client might be non responsive for several minutes
Fully expanded vSphere Client inventories are those with clusters and datacenters expanded. If you close the vSphere Client after fully expanding the inventories, the next time you open it, the expanded inventory view is loaded. As a result, the vSphere Client might become non responsive for several minutes, depending on the number of vCenter Server systems and the number of objects in each vCenter Server system's inventory. The vSphere Client will start responding after it loads all inventory objects.

Workaround: As a best practice, do not to expand the nodes of every vCenter Server system in the inventory of a Linked Mode group. Collapse the nodes before you close the vSphere Client to avoid loading the expanded nodes at start-up.

Disabled alarms for inventory objects are enabled if vCenter Server is restarted
If an alarm for an inventory object, such as a hosts, virtual machine, datastore, and so on, is disabled in vCenter Server and vCenter Server is restarted, the alarms are enabled after the vCenter Server restart is complete.

Workaround: Disable the alarms on the appropriate inventory objects when vCenter Server restarts.

Virtual machine templates stored on shared storage become unavailable after Distributed Power Management (DPM) puts a host in standby mode or when a host is put in maintenance mode
The vSphere Client associates virtual machine templates with a specific host. If the host storing the virtual machine templates is put into standby mode by DPM or into maintenance mode, the templates appear disabled in the vSphere Client. This behavior occurs even if the templates are stored on shared storage.

Workaround: Disable DPM on the host that stores the virtual machine templates. When the host is in maintenance mode, use the Datastore browser on another host that is not in maintenance or standby mode and also has access to the datastore on which the templates are stored to find the virtual machine templates. Then you can provision virtual machines using those templates.

You might encounter a LibXML DLL module load error when you fresh install vSphere CLI on some Windows platforms, such as Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 32bit for the first time

Incorrect links on ESX and ESXi Welcome page
The download links under vSphere Remote Command Line section, vSphere Web Services SDK section, and the links to download vSphere 4 documentation and VMware vCenter on the Welcome page of ESX and ESXi are wrongly mapped.
Workaround: Download the products from the VMware Web site.

On Nexus 1000v, distributed power management cannot put a host into standby If a host does not have Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) or Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) support for distributed power management (DPM), that host can still use DPM provided all the physical NICs of the host that are added to Nexus 1000V DVS have Wake-on-LAN support. If even one of the physical NICs is not Wake-on-LAN supported, the host cannot be put into standby by DPM.

Workaround: None.

Virtual Machine Management

VMXNET 3 network adapters are not exported during an OVF export of virtual machines
When you use VirtualCenter to perform an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) export, virtual machines which have VMXNET 3 network adapters are exported with VMXNET network adapters. This will cause virtual machines from this template to be deployed with VMXNET network adapters instead of VMXNET 3 network adapters. This issue occurs when you connect to the ESX host by using vSphere Client released along with vSphere 4.0 Update 4.

Workaround: None.

Prompts to install a PCI standard PCI-PCI bridge occur after upgrading Windows 2000 virtual machines from hardware version 4 to hardware version 7
When you upgrade a Windows 2000 virtual machine from hardware version 4 to hardware version 7, you might see numerous pop-up messages prompting you to install a PCI standard PCI-PCI bridge. These messages are harmless.

Workaround: Accept all prompts to complete the hardware version upgrade.

Custom scripts assigned in vmware-toolbox for suspend power event do not run when you suspend the virtual machine from the vSphere Client
If you have assigned a custom script to the suspend power event in the Script tab of vmware-toolbox and you have configured the virtual machine to run VMware Tools scripts when you perform the suspend scripts, then the custom scripts are not run when you suspend the virtual machine from the vSphere Client.

Workaround: None

Automatic VMware Tools upgrade on guest power on reboots the guest automatically without issuing a reboot notification
If you select to automatically update VMware Tools on a Windows Vista or Windows 2008 guest operating system, when the operating system powers on, VMware Tools is updated and the guest operating system automatically reboots without issuing a reboot notification message.

Workaround: None

Cloning virtual machines with customization might result in a dialog box for Sysprep file information
When you clone a virtual machine with customization, the cloning process might not finish and a Sysprep dialog box might prompt you for additional files.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Note the list of missing files that Windows mini-setup cannot find.

Copy the required files (for example, c_20127.nls) from the source machine to the Sysprep install files folder, c:\sysprep\i386. The files that Sysprep prompts for are usually in the following location on the virtual source machine: C:\Windows\system32.

Perform the cloning with customization.

Note: The Sysprep directory is removed after the virtual machine is started and customization is completed.

Virtual machines running a Windows NT guest operating system require a reinstall of the network adapter driver after upgrading virtual hardware from version 4 to version 7
After upgrading the virtual hardware on a Windows NT guest operating system, the virtual machine is unable to get an IP address because Windows NT does not fully support plug-and-play specification.

Workaround: After upgrading virtual hardware from version 4 to version 7 on a Windows NT virtual machine, reinstall the network adapter driver by following the steps below.

Right-click Network Neighborhood and select Properties.

Select the Adapters tab.

Remove the existing adapter.

Add a new adapter.

For an AMD PCNet driver, select AMD PCNET Family Ethernet adapter and specify the path as C:\winnt\system32.
For a vmxnet driver, click Have disk and specify path as C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\.

Reboot the virtual machine.

An IDE hard disk added to a hardware version 7 virtual machine is defined as Hard Disk 1 even if a SCSI hard disk is already present
If you have a hardware version 7 virtual machine with a SCSI disk already attached as Hard Disk 1 and you add an IDE disk, the virtual machine alters the disk numbering. The IDE disk is defined as Hard Disk 1 and the SCSI disk is changed to Hard Disk 2.

Workaround: None. However, if you decide to delete one of the disks, do not rely exclusively on the disk number. Instead, verify the disk type to ensure that you are deleting the correct disk.

Reverting to snapshot might not work if you cold migrate a virtual machine with a snapshot from an ESX/ESXi 3.5 host to an ESX/ESXi 4.0 host
You can cold migrate a virtual machine with snapshots from an ESX/ESXi 3.5 host to ESX/ESXi 4.0 host. However, reverting to a snapshot after migration might not work.

Workaround: None

The vCenter Server fails when the delta disk depth of a linked virtual machine clone is greater than the supported depth of 32
If the delta disk depth of a linked virtual machine clone is greater than the supported depth of 32, the vCenter Server fails and the following error message appears:

Win32 exception: Stack overflow

In such instances, you cannot restart the vCenter Server unless you remove the virtual machine from the host or clean the vCenter Server database. Consider removing the virtual machine from the host rather than cleaning the vCenter Server database, because it is much safer.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Log in to the vSphere Client on the host.

Display the virtual machine clone in the inventory.

Right-click the virtual machine and choose Delete from Disk.

Restart the vCenter Server.

Note: After you restart the vCenter Server, if the virtual machine is listed in the vSphere Client inventory and the Remove from Inventory option is disabled in the virtual machine context menu, you must manually remove the virtual machine entry from the vCenter database.

Creating a new SCSI disk in a virtual machine can result in an inaccurate error message
When you create a new SCSI disk in a virtual machine and you set the SCSI bus to virtual, an error message is issued with the following line:

Please verify that the virtual disk was created using the "thick" option.

However, thick by itself is not an option. The option should be eagerzeroedthick.

Workaround: Using the command line, create the SCSI disk with the vmkfstools command and the eagerzeroedthick option.

The Installation Boot options for a virtual machine are not exported to Open Virtualization Format (OVF)
When you create an OVF package from a virtual machine that has the Installation Boot option enabled, this option is ignored during export. As a result, the OVF descriptor is missing the InstallSection element, which provides information about the installation process. When you deploy an OVF package, the InstallSection element is parsed correctly.

Workaround: After exporting the virtual machine to OVF, manually create the InstallSection parameters in the OVF descriptor. If a manifest (.mf) file is present, you must regenerate it after you modify the OVF descriptor.

Example:Specifies that an install boot is needed.

The inclusion of the InstallSection parameters in the descriptor informs the deployment process that an install boot is required to complete deployment. The ovf:initialBootStopDelay attribute specifies the boot delay.

See the OVF specification for details.

A virtual machine cloned from a snapshot of a virtual machine with an LSI SAS controller might be erroneously configured with a BusLogic controller
If you take a snapshot of a virtual machine with an LSI SAS controller and then clone a virtual machine from the snapshot, the virtual machine that was cloned from the snapshot might have BusLogic controller configured in the virtual machine properties instead of LSI SAS controller.

Workaround: After cloning a virtual machine from a snapshot of a virtual machine with an LSI SAS controller, check the controller type for the cloned virtual machine in the Snapshot.config property. Reconfigure the controller type for the cloned virtual machine if necessary.

Virtual machine fails to boot after adding (iLO) virtual CD-ROM without media as a SCSI device
After adding Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) virtual CD-ROM without media to the virtual machine as a SCSI device, virtual machine fails during booting when trying to boot from the virtual CD-ROM.

If virtual CD-ROM is not used for guest operating system installation in the virtual machine, change the boot order in the virtual machine BIOS to list hard disk, floppy disk, and NIC above CD-ROM.

Avoid the usage of iLO virtual CD-ROM. ESX can connect both local and remote CD-ROM devices and ISO images to the virtual machines, without enforcing the restriction of only one CDROM device being exposed by iLO on a system.

vMotion and Storage vMotion

Reverting to a snapshot might fail after reconfiguring and relocating the virtual machine
If you reconfigure the properties of a virtual machine and move it to a different host after you have taken a snapshot of it, reverting to the snapshot of that virtual machine might fail.

Workaround: Avoid moving virtual machines with snapshots to hosts that are very different (for example, different version, different CPU type, etc.)

Using Storage vMotion to migrate a virtual machine with many disks might time out
A virtual machine with many virtual disks might be unable to complete a migration with Storage vMotion. The Storage vMotion process requires time to open, close, and process disks during the final copy phase. Storage vMotion migrations of virtual machines with many disks might time out because of this per-disk overhead.

Workaround: Increase the Storage vMotion fsr.maxSwitchoverSeconds setting in the virtual machine configuration file to a larger value. The default value is 100 seconds. Alternatively, at the time of the Storage vMotion migration, avoid running a large number of provisioning operations, migrations, power on, or power off operations on the same datastores the Storage vMotion migration is using.

Storage vMotion does not support source RDM conversion to target NFS volumes
Disk-only Storage vMotion fails for virtual mode RDMs when you convert the disks to flat/sparse format on NFS volumes.

Workaround: Perform the following steps to migrate virtual mode RDMs to NFS volumes:

Use Storage vMotion to convert an RDM virtual machine disk to disk type flat/sparse using intermediate an SAN, local, or iSCSI volume.

Use Storage vMotion to relocate the converted disks from the SAN, local, or iSCSI volume to an NFS volume.

Storage vMotion of NFS volume may be overridden by NFS server disk format
When you use Storage vMotion to migrate a virtual disk to an NFS volume or perform other virtual machine provisioning that involves NFS volumes, the disk format is determined by the NFS server where the destination NFS volume resides. This overrides any selection you made in the Disk Format menu.

Workaround: None

If ESX/ESXi hosts fail or reboot during Storage vMotion, the operation can fail and Virtual machines might become orphaned
If hosts fail or reboot during Storage vMotion, the vMotion operation can fail. The destination virtual machine's virtual disks might show up as orphaned in the vSphere inventory after the host reboots. Typically, the virtual machine's state is preserved before the host shuts down.

If the virtual machine does not show up in an orphaned state, check to see if the destination VMDK files exist.

Workaround: You can manually delete the orphaned destination virtual machine from the vSphere inventory. Locate and delete any remaining orphaned destination disks if they exist on the datastore.

Storage vMotion conflicts with remote CD/DVD and floppy disk device connections
CD/DVD and floppy remote backup devices are not supported with Storage vMotion. However, when you perform Storage vMotion on a powered-on virtual machine hosted by ESX/ESXi 4.0, the toolbar icon for connecting and disconnecting CD/DVD and floppy devices remains enabled, allowing you to add these devices while Storage vMotion is in progress even though this might cause failures.

Workaround: Before initiating Storage vMotion, disconnect all remote CD/DVD and floppy devices attached to the virtual machine by clicking the CD/DVD and floppy device connect/disconnect icon.

Storage vMotion failure mode can result in power off of virtual machine
When Storage vMotion is used on an ESX/ESXi 4.0 host, if moving the data fails due to a transient error (for example: out of memory), Storage vMotion might not complete successfully, migration performance may degrade, or the source virtual machine may power off.

Workaround: Power on the virtual machine.

Storage vMotion on ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts does not display correct disk type if disk type is changed during Storage vMotion
The Storage vMotion wizard presents an option to convert disk type (from thick to thin or from thin to thick) for virtual machines on any ESX/ESXi host version. After a disk is converted and Storage vMotion is complete, the disk type is not reflected properly for ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts. The vSphere Client still reflects the old disk type.

Workaround: Power off the virtual machine, un-register it, and then re-register it.

Virtual machines stored on a local datastore are not migrated off of the host when the host is placed in maintenance mode
Virtual machines stored on a local datastore are not migrated off of the host when the host is placed in maintenance mode.

Workaround: Manually move virtual machine on local datastores to another host if they need to remain available while their current host is in maintenance mode.

Using Storage vMotion to relocate a virtual machine back to its source volume might result in an insufficient disk space error
When you use Storage vMotion to move a virtual machine to another datastore and then back to its source volume, the vSphere Client does not immediately refresh the size of the source datastore, resulting in an error.

Workaround: Refresh the datastore in the vSphere Client. If the reported size of the datastore does not change after one attempt, wait for 30 minutes and refresh again.

VMware High Availability and Fault Tolerance

Failover to VMware FT secondary virtual machine produces error message on host client
When VMware Fault Tolerance is failing over to a secondary virtual machine, if the host chosen for the secondary virtual machine has recently booted, the host client sees this attempt as failing and displays the following error message:

Login failed due to a bad username or password.

This error message is seen because the host has recently booted and it is possible that it has not yet received an SSL thumbprint from the vCenter Server. After the thumbprint is pushed out to the host, the failover succeeds. This condition is likely to occur only if all hosts in an FT-enabled cluster have failed, causing the host with the secondary virtual machine to be freshly booted.

Workaround: None. The failover succeeds after a few attempts.

Changing the system time on an ESX/ESXi host produces a VMware HA agent error
If you change the system time on an ESX/ESXi host, after a short time interval, the following HA agent error appears:

HA agent on <server> in <cluster> in <data center> has an error.

This error is displayed in both the event log and the host's Summary tab in the vSphere Client.

Workaround: Correct the host's system time and then restart vpxa by running the service vmware-vpxa restart command.

Trying to change the disk format of an FT-enabled virtual machine while migrating it across datastores results in a fault
If you attempt to change the disk format of a powered-off, FT-enabled virtual machine while migrating it across datastores, the vSphere Client displays an InvalidArgument error message indicating that the operation has failed. The correct behavior is for the vSphere Client to disable the option to change the disk format.

Workaround: When you relocate an FT-enabled virtual machine to another datastore, select the Same format as source as the default option.

Workaround: Disable the VM Monitoring feature for such virtual machines or upgrade the ESX/ESXi host to ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 or later.

Non responsive Secondary VMs or copies of virtual machines with possibly different names might remain in the host inventory if there is an interruption when turning on Fault Tolerance
If you have a virtual machine on which VMware HA is enabled and you turn on Fault Tolerance, a non responsive Secondary VM might be added to the cluster's inventory, or you might end up with multiple copies of the virtual machine with different names. This situation occurs if the destination ESX/ESXi host of the Secondary VM loses connectivity to its managing vCenter Server through a reboot, power loss, or disconnection from the network while the secondary copy is being created and might result in incomplete configuration settings on the Secondary VM.

Secondary VM remains in inventory after Fault Tolerance has been turned off for Primary VM
In some rare cases, selecting Turn Off Fault Tolerance in the vSphere Client for a Primary VM succeeds but the associated Secondary VM object is left in the inventory. This occasionally happens when a failover operation has just occurred and the new Secondary VM has not yet been started. This does not cause any serious consequences because the Secondary VM's files should have already been deleted..

Workaround: Manually delete the Secondary VM.

Configuring VMware High Availability (HA) on a heavily loaded system might result in an error message
If you are enabling HA on a host that is experiencing a heavy load from its guest virtual machines, HA configuration might be interrupted for the host and an error message is displayed:HA Agent on the host failed

Workaround: Reconfigure HA for the host, preferably after reducing the load either by powering off virtual machines or by migrating them to another host in the cluster using vMotion.

Suspended virtual machines with independent nonpersistent disks do not failover on VMware HA hosts
If you have suspended or powered off virtual machines on a host that has VMware HA enabled and if the virtual machine disks are configured to be independent and nonpersistent, failover does not happen. Those disks are not migrated to another host if the host fails, is powered off, or is placed in Maintenance Mode.
Migrating these virtual machines is currently not supported on HA because the machines are not compatible with any other host in the cluster.

Workaround: Un register the virtual machine and register it on a compatible host.

VMware HA might report misleading timeout errors when powering on or failing over a host with many VMs
VMware HA timeout errors might appear a few minutes after powering on or migrating (using VMware HA) a host with many VMs (more than 70). This timeout error disappears when most of the VMs are powered on.

Workaround: They can be ignored.

VMware Fault Tolerance does not support IPv6 addressing
If the VMkernel NICs for Fault Tolerance (FT) logging or vMotion are assigned IPv6 addresses, enabling Fault Tolerance on virtual machines fails.

Workaround: Configure the VMkernel NICs using the IPv4 addressing.

Hot-plugging of devices is not supported when FT is disabled on virtual machines
The hot-plugging feature is not supported on virtual machines when VMware Fault Tolerance is enabled or disabled on the virtual machines. You must turn off Fault Tolerance temporarily before you hot-plug a device. After hot-plugging, you can turn-on the FT. But after a hot-removal of a device, you should reboot the virtual machine to turn-on the FT.

VMware Tools

Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit IP virtualization might not work on vSphere 4.0 Update 1
IP virtualization, which allows you to allocate unique IP addresses to RDP sessions might not work on a Windows 2008 R2 Terminal Server running on vSphere 4.0 Update 1. However, IP virtualization works when you configure a physical Windows 2008 R2 Terminal Server, or when you run a Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine on XenServer 5.5 Update 2 Dell OEM Edition.
This issue might occur if you install VMware Tools after installing Remote Desktop services.

Workaround: Choose custom installation for installing VMware Tools, and remove VMCI from the list of drivers that should be installed.

Virtual machine snapshots stop responding when certain conditions apply Attempts to take a virtual machine snapshot might result in the display of the in progress status when all of the following conditions apply:

The Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory option is not selected.

The quiesce guest file system option is selected.

A third-party VSS (Volume Shadow copy Service) provider is installed

In such cases, the in progress status continues to be displayed until the task display times out. Moreover, the process continues, preventing other snapshots from being taken.